*Chuckles.* Little sister, acquired.
Easy pickings.
The moment I used Yamada-kun — her precious brother — as leverage, little sis folded right away.
Even though she views her brother as absolute on an emotional level, the rational part of her clearly understood the power gap between me and Yamada-kun.
"I don't care what happens to me, but please don't lay a hand on my brother!"
What a brave proposal she offered up all on her own.
Gets me right in the feels.
Though for my part, I actually can't stop laughing.
But what came after was loooong.
Little sis launched into her "My Brother Is the Greatest" speech.
The old man mage's endless monologue from back then was the same, but why is it that people who get fixated on a single subject just talk so, so much?
Granted, I'm partly to blame too — I couldn't find a single opening to cut in, so I just sat there and listened to the whole thing.
My ears are still echoing with "brother this" and "brother that" and "brother, brother, brother" on repeat.
Hey, feet — go numb already and do your job.
In the end, I heard everything from Chapter One's "My Brother Is So Great" all the way to the final chapter's "My Brother Will Eventually Become a God."
The part about Chapter Seven's "My Brother Is a Child Genius" was actually kind of entertaining.
Thanks to all that, it took forever before we could get down to business.
Good thing I'd already set up my time manipulation.
So, in exchange for me not harming her precious brother, I made little sis agree to four conditions.
First: no more making any moves against Natsume-kun, ever.
Second: she must prioritize obtaining one of the Skills — Humility, Mercy, or Chastity.
Third: she must always carry around one of my clones — fingertip-sized — and follow its instructions.
Fourth: she must never tell anyone about me.
The first was just in case — left to her own devices, she'd probably try to attack Natsume-kun again.
The second was a long shot.
After all, it seems you need exceptional talent to obtain a Ruler Skill.
Little sis seems talented enough, but even so, whether she could actually pull it off is honestly questionable.
So, I'm not setting my expectations too high — think of it as "nice bonus if she manages it."
The third was to strengthen surveillance.
That way, there'd be no need for any more sneaking around regarding Yamada-kun.
I doubt I'll actually need to issue many instructions.
Little sis hasn't given me any reason to do so yet.
Though if circumstances change, the day she might have to do something for me could come.
The fourth was just a natural precaution.
Little sis's legs had more or less hit their limit by then, so I told her that, handed over the clone, and released her.
I also healed her legs as a little bonus — with expectations for future service.
For that matter, I could have done the same thing as with Natsume-kun — wiped her memories and had the clone parasitize her brain.
But for some reason, I didn't.
If I had to give a reason, it's that with that method, she probably wouldn't have been able to obtain a Ruler Skill.
Ruler Skills are — how to put it — something you can only obtain based on desires and thoughts rooted deep in your heart.
My Pride, Patience, and Sloth are exactly that.
Mercy was something I stumbled into by chance, so that's probably the exception.
If someone had excess energy floating around like Natsume-kun, that'd be a different story, but I believe that without genuinely wishing for it from the bottom of one's heart, you can't obtain a Ruler Skill.
So even if I parasitized her with a clone and guided her thinking, a Ruler Skill wouldn't sprout.
If little sis were to obtain a Ruler Skill, it'd probably be Chastity or Humility.
She might also go for Envy, but there's already a claim on that one.
Chastity — she's devoted body and soul to her brother, after all.
Humility — her brother is the greatest in the world, so she's second best at most.
Yep, she can do it. She can definitely do it.
As for Mercy... let's just pretend that one doesn't exist.
Now then, after releasing little sis, I placed Natsume-kun under suggestion and wiped the memories of the guards who'd fainted during the commotion.
And just like that, nobody in the world knows about little sis's rampage.
I don't know — in actual time, this all just happened moments ago, but it feels like an incredibly long time has passed.
Hmm.
I can't afford to just stand around.
I need to go check on the teacher.
I managed to prevent the collapse of the teacher's soul.
Prevented it, yes, but that doesn't mean there's no damage.
Some Skills have probably vanished, and her Status should have dropped.
Most importantly, the total quantity of her soul — something that doesn't even show up on a Status screen — has decreased.
The HP auto-recovery Skill, the MP recovery speed — where does the energy for that recovery actually come from?
Just because it's a fantasy world doesn't mean the law of conservation of mass doesn't apply.
In the same way, there has to be something like a law of conservation of soul energy.
If Status is based on soul power, then recovering from injuries also uses soul power.
Using soul power that isn't displayed on your Status.
That's why, with the teacher's soul power drastically depleted, neither her HP nor MP will recover.
And the teacher's body, in an attempt to compensate for that lost soul power, must be breaking down its own tissues to convert into energy.
Meaning — without doing anything at all, her body is being covered in wounds.
Sure enough, when I went to check on the teacher, she was drenched in blood in her bed.
Her cheeks had sunken in, and her already small body had shrunk even further.
She'd wasted away as though she hadn't eaten properly in months, and even that wasn't enough — her skin was literally disappearing.
If you could call it the reverse phenomenon of HP auto-recovery.
It was literally eroding the teacher's body away.
The teacher's condition is worse than I anticipated.
Without external treatment, she'll die.
I wondered why it had gotten this bad, but the answer came easily.
She'd been putting on a brave face out of sheer stubbornness, refusing to show her students how miserable she'd become.
Under normal circumstances, she should have just collapsed from wasting away.
But the teacher endured it through sheer willpower, and as a result, it got worse.
In truth, even making it back here from the training grounds under her own power should have been an ordeal.
I mean, under normal circumstances, she'd have collapsed on the spot and needed immediate medical attention.
Good grief, this person.
Don't you take on way too much by yourself?
Very teacher-like, I'll give her that.
I heal the teacher.
Her wounds close, and the blood she'd lost returns.
I can't fully recover the lost soul power, but this should stop the deterioration of her body.
She's probably lost some weight too, but that's something she'll have to regain through eating.
Oh, and let me do a little something extra while I'm at it.
Footsteps.
I leave the room via teleportation.
Of course, leaving a clone behind.
The one who entered the room was
Without any concern for a sick patient, he flung the door open carelessly and strode quickly toward the teacher.
Potimas looked down at the teacher with the cold, detached gaze one might give a lab animal, then slowly reached out and grabbed her by the head.
"Tch!"
A single click of the tongue.
He releases her head.
*Cackling intensifies* Serves you right!
What you might call the clever side effect of the injuries from this incident — a fragment of Potimas's soul that had been embedded in the teacher's soul had been blown away.
I imagine it was offered up as a sacrifice.
Hey, does that sting?
Even if it's just a piece, having a chunk of your soul ripped out — gotta hurt, right?
And of course, there's no way I'd let such a golden opportunity slip by.
I'd already set up a little trick in the teacher's soul called a Protection.
Now Potimas can no longer lay a hand on the teacher.
And the biggest reason I couldn't lay a hand on Potimas has disappeared.
All that's left is to deal with his Ruler authority, and I can send this bastard plummeting to the bottom of hell.
"Ugh... nngh..."
Oops, the teacher's about to wake up.
"You awake?"
"Potimas? Where... am I?"
"Your room."
Still groggy, the teacher's gaze drifts unfocused.
"Did you... heal my wounds, Potimas?"
"Yeah, that's right."
Deadpan!
Y-you!
*Gnashing of teeth* It's killing me that I can't step up and claim credit here!
That was ME, Potimas!
Whether he sensed my killing intent or not, Potimas abruptly scanned the room.
Well, whatever.
I'll let him off for now.
He didn't do anything extra to the teacher, after all.
If he'd tried anything else — like possessing her — my punishment would've been waiting.
*Chuckles.* I'm already looking forward to the day I take this guy's head.
He can spend the time until then trembling in anticipation.